articles/Nature/nikhdrpro-page3

Nik HDR Pro - part 3 of 1 2 3 4

by Tom Lee Published

For some the clouds may be a little heavy - this can be compensated for by using the U Point selection tool and reducing the effect in just the cloud regions.

The section labelled Selective Adjustments is Nik's patented U Point application. Click on the target and place a control point in the image that you need to fine tune. The size of the area selected can be controlled by adjusting the mask slider on the control point. By default, only three sliders for exposure, contrast and saturation are available, but click the small arrow at the base of the slider tree and more options are presented. The beauty of this control is that the area outside the control circle is masked and unaffected by the local changes made using this U Point selection.

When happy with your adjustments, click OK for the changes to be made permanent and it will return you to your master program. All your necessary changes can be made within the HDR interface without needing further adjustment within Photoshop (but this is still possible if needed). Within the HDR interface you can find vignette and curves adjustment dialogues which we have not discussed here, but need little explanation.

Single Image Tone Mapping

Although multiple images are the accepted method for creating great HDR imagery, HDR Pro has the ability to create images from a single capture using advanced tone mapping algorithms.

Sometimes we just don't have enough time to set up that tripod or fiddle with camera settings before that vital moment in time is lost. There will be occasions when we only have time for that split second shutter press to get the image we need.

The Nik Interface

The method for producing a single image HDR is exactly the same as described above. The only difference is instead of three, five or seven captures we will only use one. Choose your image in Bridge and select Tools>Nik Software>HDR Efex Tone Mapping. The process of producing your image is the same as before but the algorithms only have the one image source to draw the information from and the effect is not as controlled or precise as using multiple captures. Nevertheless, the effects are amazing.

• Nik HDR Pro page 1
  
• Nik HDR Pro page 2
  
• Nik HDR Pro page 3
  
• Nik HDR Pro page 4
  

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